Governor should pause in his self-congratulations

The Patriot-News' Heather Long made a valuable point in her July 3 column about the state budget. It might not prescribe a tax increase for Pennsylvanians, but a good many citizens of the commonwealth will nevertheless face a tax increase.

Moreover, many of those citizens can ill afford the increase. Gov. Tom Corbett's budget severely reduced state aid to public schools, forcing many school districts to increase tax rates to balance their budgets. These increases in property taxes fall on homeowners, many of whom are retirees on fixed incomes. In such cases, the property tax increase becomes regressive in that it falls more heavily on persons with low, fixed incomes than on those who are better off economically.

Even with increases in property tax rates, school districts have found it necessary to reduce staff and programs, impose wage freezes and require higher contributions from employees for health benefits. And, of course, cuts in state support for higher education mean increases in tuition, increases which, if not foreclosing the college option for some, will add to the burden of debt young people will carry by the time of graduation.

The governor and Republican majority in the Legislature should pause in their self-congratulations for achieving a balanced and on-time budget and recognize that the balancing was done at the expense of those least able to afford the sacrifice: children, the poor and the elderly. I think that’s a sorry piece of work.